Browsed byCategory: Culture of Perpetual Outrage

The noise level on Twitter greatly exceeds the signal, as their content has become overrun with meanness, falsehoods and outrage. This is not good for anyone’s mental health. I have no idea when or if I will log in again after the events of this past week.

Social media is the new battleground. It’s being used to push people over the edge, to threaten violence against others, and in some cases, leading to actual violence. A controversial video clip that spread online in the past day was pushed by what appears to have been a fake account.

Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, has given a warning that the world has reached the “peak social” as days are numbered for big social network sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook which, he says, are near a saturation point. He has reasoned that more and more users are turning to private messaging apps. “I believe that we’ve hit peak social,” Ohanian was quoted as saying. “We’ve reached the ceiling.” Source: Are Facebook, WhatsApp running the last lap? Days…

In light of the survey finding most voters are badly misinformed on well known and popular public policy issues the same is likely true about social media posts. It is likely that more than half of political or policy oriented social media posts are incorrect. But depending on who makes the posts, and how many followers they have, their incorrect posts can be influential – and plant non factual and illogical constructions in the minds of their targets.

A widely shared social media post about the Supreme Court contains 4 major errors according to an expert on law. Yet at the time of his writing, had been shared over 18,000 times on Facebook. Social media enables anyone to act as a propagandist, and once memes go viral, they become “facts” even though they are completely wrong.

If we engaged in widely publicized hateful or hurtful or vile speech, our employers would likely begin job termination procedures within 24 hours regardless of whether we made such comments in a private capacity or not. As the NY Times notes, “Speaking Freely About Politics Can Cost You Your Job“. Private sector workers ‘ “…don’t have the right to speak freely in the workplace.” Or even outside it.’ Unlike public sector workers: “… anyone who works for a government office,…

Hoaxers impersonate legitimate reporters In the first incident, a perpetrator used a software tool to create two fake tweets that looked like they came from the account of Alex Harris, a Herald reporter preparing tributes to the slain students. One fake tweet asked for photos of dead bodies at the school and another asked if the shooter was white. The reporter almost immediately began getting angry messages. Source: Hoax attempts against Miami Herald augur broader information wars | McClatchy Washington…

This linked piece was shared into my FB news feed. The item argues that President Trump suffers a fragile ego and is constantly looking for affirmation from others. The column says people seek to increase their “tribal self esteem” by strengthening their group membership, by, for example, spreading online propaganda messaging in support of their cause – and denigrating those who think otherwise (for any reason). The column quotes from Nathaniel Branden: “It would be hard to name a more…

This came across my Facebook time line today: “The world’s hunger is getting ridiculous” – the word “getting” implies global hunger is getting worse – which is the message intended by this social media propaganda meme. Some types of shampoo may contain extracts of flowers or herbs and a few may contain extract of a fruit, but they are not significant components, by mass, of shampoo. This tidbit seems thrown in to encourage the target to feel guilty. In reality,…

I ran across a link to an old CNN Money financial news report from October 24, 2016. Every speculation made in this news report was wrong and illustrates how much “news” is not really reporting on events but is speculation about the future. One week before the 2016 Presidential election, CNN Money’s report is titled A Trump win would sink stocks. What about Clinton? by Heather Long @byHeatherLong Key points: If Donald Trump wins, U.S. stocks – and likely…